Chapter 4
TERTULLIAN
Chapter 4 (1) We know from our Lord's teaching that, while the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.1 Let us, however, not derive delusive gratification from the Lord's acknowledg ment of the weakness of the flesh. For it was on purpose that He first declared the spirit willing: He wanted to show which of the two ought to be subject to the other, that is to say, that the flesh should be submissive to the spirit, the weaker to the stronger, so that the former may draw strength from the latter. (2) Let the spirit converse with the flesh on their common salvation, no longer thinking about the hardships of prison but, rather, about the struggle of the actual contest. The flesh will perhaps fear the heavy sword and the lofty cross and the wild beasts mad with rage and the most terrible punishment of all—death by fire—and, finally, all the executioner's cunning during the torture. (3) But let the spirit present to both itself and the flesh the other side of the picture: granted, these sufferings are grievous, yet many have borne them patiently, nay, have even sought them on their own accord for the sake of fame and glory; and this is true not only of men but also of women so that you, too, O blessed women, may be worthy of your sex.
(4) It would lead me too far were I to enumerate each one of those who, led by the impulse of their own mind, put an end to their lives by the sword. Among women there is the well-known instance of Lucretia. A victim of violence, she stabbed herself in the presence of her kinsfolk to Sain gW for her chastity.2 Mucius burnt his right
1 Cf. Matt. 26.41; Mark 14.38.
2 Lucretia, the Roman model of womanly conduct, killed herself after
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hand on the altar that his fair fame might include this deed.* * 3 (5) Nor did the philosophers act less courageously:
Heraclitus, for instance, who put an end to his life by smearing himself with cow dung;4 Empedocles, too, who leaped down into the fires of Mt. Etna;5 and Peregrinus who not long ago threw himself upon a funeral pile.6 Why, even women have despised the flames: Dido did so in order not to be forced to marry after the departure of the having been violated by Sextus Tarquinius, the son of King L. Tarquinius Superbus. According to Roman tradition, this misdeed brought about the overthrow of the monarchy in Rome. Cf. Livy 1.58-59;
Cicero, De re publica 2.25.46; Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta mem orabilia 6.1.1.
3 According to Roman tradition, C. Mucius Scaevola, a Roman youth, was caught in the attempt to assassinate Porsenna, the Etruscan king of Clusium, who had made war upon Rome in order to restore the monarchy of the Tarquinian family. Threatened with torture, he burned off his right hand over a brazier to show his courage, and hence received the surname Scaevola, i.e., Left-handed. Cf. Livy
2.12; Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memor. 3.3.1. Tertullian cites this example also in his Apology 50.5.
4 Very little is known about the life of Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 500 b.c.) . Of his death we have the unsupported story, told by Diogenes
Laertius in his Lives of the Philosophers (9.1.3), which runs as follows. Attacked by dropsy and challenging the physicians he had consulted first, Heraclitus covered himself with cow dung, hoping that the warmth thus produced would cause the excess of water in his body to evaporate. The experiment, however, ended fatally.
5 A popular story in antiquity, but likewise unworthy of credence, related that Empedocles of Acragas (c. 500-430 b.c.) , committed suicide by leaping into the fiery mouth of Mt. Etna so that he might die without leaving a trace behind him, and thereby confirm his divinity. Cf. Diogenes Laertius 8.2.69. Tertullian cites this example also in his Apology 50.5.
6 Finding his popularity waning, Peregrinus Proteus, a wandering Cynic philosopher, decided to immolate himself on a funeral pile at the celebration of the Olympic Games in a.d. 165 to set an example of contempt of death. In his On the Death of Peregrinus,
Lucian of Samosata, the second-century Greek sophist and satirist, tells us the story, asserting that he was an eye-witness of the event.
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man she had loved most dearly;7 the wife of Hasdrubal, too, with Carthage in flames, cast herself along with her children into the fire that was destroying her native city, that she might not see her husband a suppliant at Scipio's feet.8 (6) Regulus, a Roman general, was taken prisoner by the Carthaginians, but refused to be the only Roman exchanged for a large number of Carthaginian captives.
He preferred to be returned to the enemy,, and, crammed into a kind of chest, suffered as many crucifixions as nails were driven in from the outside in all directions to pierce him. A woman voluntarily sought out wild beasts, namely, vipers, serpents more horrible than either bull or bear,
This refers to the well-known legend of Dido, the mythical found ress of Carthage, and Aeneas. After various adventures during hi: wanderings, Aeneas and his men were driven by a storm upon the coast of Africa, near the site of Carthage. There they were hospitably received by Dido, whom Venus caused to fall violently in love with Aeneas. When, after a stay of a few months, Aeneas was ordered by Jupiter to leave, Dido in despair at his departure kilkd herself. Cf. Virgil, Aeneid 4.504ff. The example is also cited by Tertullian in his Apology 50.5 and Ad nationes 1.18 3
In the Third Punic War (149-146 b.c.) Carthage had stood a siege of four years, when at last the Roman legions forced their wfv over the walls of the unhappy city. Fighting in the streets continued for several days, until Hasdrubal, the Carthaginian commander
% 5sa ""c')1trt"dTti„d„urinhi r a: to Carthage he was tortured to death. Cf. Cicero De officii, 3 oo general Srin u!"8 vdefenders at last surrendered to the Roman her hn\STr ue YounSerBut Hasdrubal-s wife, upbraiding her husbiind for his cowardice, slew her two boys and cast herself wuh them from the top of a burning temple into the ruins Cf l°Zr fi,cZ l3T',V7: Valerius MaximusZZnes 1 18 3 ' TenUl',a" "" thls "amP'e ak° " his Ad
Aulus^Ce^r" 3/5; MaximusFacta et ^cta memor 3fl 'l4Aulus Gellius, Nodes Atticae 7 (6) .4 Tertullian riiee th- ' 1,1 , also in his Apology 50.6 and Ad nationes 1.18.3. h examPle
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which Cleopatra let loose upon herself as not to fall into the hands of the enemy.10
(7) You may object: 'But the fear of death is not so great as the fear of torture.' Did the Athenian courtesan yield on that account to the executioner? For, being privy to a conspiracy, she was subjected to torture by the tyrant.
But she did not betray her fellow conspirators, and at last bit off her own tongue and spat it into the tyrant's face to let him know that torments, however prolonged, could achieve nothing against her.* 11 (8) Everybody knows that to this day the most important festival of the Lacedaemonians is the biapocaTLycoaic;, that is, The Whipping. In this sacred rite all the noble youth are scourged with whips before the altar, while their parents and kinsfolk stand by and exhort them to perseverance. For they regard it as a mark of greater distinction and glory if the soul rather than the body has submitted to the stripes.12
(9) Therefore, if earthly glory accruing from strength 10 After their defeat by Octavian at Actium in 31 b.c., Cleopatra and Mark Antony escaped to Egypt. When Octavian landed there,
Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra tried in vain to entice Octavian by her charms and, according to the common tradition, put an end to her life by applying an asp to her bosom. Cf. Florus,
Epitome 2.21 (4.11) .11; Horace, Odes 1.37.25-28. The example is also found in Tertullian's Ad nationes 1.18.3.
11 The story of the Athenian courtesan is told by Pliny, Naturalis Historia 7.23.87 and Pausanias, Descriptio Graeciae 1.23.1-2. The courtesan's name was Leaena, and Harmodius and Aristogiton were the conspirators. Tertullian cites this example of female fortitude also in his Apology 50.8 and in Ad nationes 1.18.4.
12 This test of endurance in pain, which formed an element in the rigorous training of the Spartan youth, took place at the festival of Artemis Orthia. The original meaning of the ceremony is obscure.
Some scholars have thought to recognize in this practice the blow with the sacred bough, whereby its power is communicated to man.
Tertullian mentions this example of endurance in pain also in his Apology 50.9 and in Ad nationes 1.18.11.
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of body and soul is valued so highly that one despises sword, fire, piercing with nails, wild beasts and tortures for the reward of human praise, then I may say the sufferings you endure are but trifling in comparison with the heavenly glory and divine reward. If the bead made of glass is rated so highly, how much must the true pearl be worth?
Who, therefore, does not most gladly spend as much for the true as others spend for the false?
Chapter 5 (1)1 omit here an account of the motive of glory. For inordinate ambition among men as well as a certain morbidity of mind have already set at naught all the cruel and torturing contests mentioned above. How many of the leisure class are urged by an excessive love of arms to become gladiators?
Surely it is from vanity that they descend to the wild beasts in the very arena, and think themselves more handsome be cause of the bites and scars. Some have even hired themselves out to tests by fire, with the result that they ran a certain distance in a burning tunic. Others have pranced up and down amid the bullwhips of the animal-baiters, unflinchingly exposing their shoulders.1 (2) All this, O blessed, the Lord tolerates in the world for good reason, that is, for the sake of encouraging us in the present moment and of confounding us on that final day, if we have recoiled from suffering for the truth unto salvation what others have pursued out of vanity unto perdition.
1 USSm"1 menti°nS these degrading practices also in Ad nationes